Kitman

Grrrrr. I bet Sir Liam Donaldson is like Father Jack Hackett behind closed doors, the difference being that he can afford to pickle his kidneys with top quality continental booze. 'Passive drinking'? What a load of shizzle. Are we meant to be absorbing large quantities of alcohol in the home through osmosis or something? It's a meaningless sound bite, no doubt dreamt up in the gents' club over a large brandy and a cigar...... People like Sir Liam are professional miseries, sermonising and preaching against every one of life's pleasures, tarring everyone with the same brush of excess. And stupid lazy journalists dole out this crapola so they don't have to go and out and find real news to write about. So we all get bombarded with useless information, which comprises the latest medical fad dreamt up by lunatics on the research gravy train and which is usually discredited at a later date. This of course makes not the slightest difference to our behaviour but manages to add to the general air of hypochondria and depression that seems to permanently hang over the British media. No doubt he feels the job of pissing in people's ashtrays is done so he can get on with spitting in their drinks. After that he'll shit on their monosaturated fish and chips. And him and his ilk will keep on bitching and moaning until we all live long, miserable joyless lives, stuffed into run down retirement homes where we can be filled with low fat tranquillisers and left to rot in our own shit. Great. Bastard.

It gets lonely out on the farm with just your tractor for company. They should have gone for Xisco, he'd have made a better poster boy for a stout Suffolk yeoman.

I think that there are a few folk who are petrified Ashley will 'chuck his hand in' and walk away from Newcastle United, thus putting us into financial/league status/existance meltdown. The same deluded folk see NUSC as the catalyst if the above happens. I just don't understand that viewpoint. Businessmen like Ashley just don't operate like that. At best they're a lobby group, they won't influence his plans for his shareholding one iota. Personally I think he sees them as an irritation, if he notices them at all. The idea that they could 'get to him', whilst flattering for the NUSC, is totally misconceived imo. He'll do what he likes and go when he likes, and it's bugger all to do with the NUSC.

I find it strange some people seem to blame our current woes on the NUSC. As AcrossthePond eloquently states, the current mess is down to Ashley and his officers and no-one else. I've got nothing whatsoever to do with the NUSC, and I'm gutted about the state of the club. Am I to blame for the situation if I complain about it too?

Peasepud or Duffer?

True, but when Ashley was sounding him out about the job up here there wasnt a lot of us who had a good word to say about him....... If only we could wind the clock back then. I'd have hated Redknapp at the time because I don't think he'd be a long term appointment, he's something of a chequebook manager in my eyes and a bullshitter, and would be on his toes the moment he got a better offer from a Southern team. He's also extravagantly ugly, looking like a wax caricature that's been melting by the fire. Now I'd have him at the club in a flash. At least he has a clue what he's doing. He was in a near-fatal car crash which left him disfigured tbf (about 4 people were killed iirc). I was being a little tongue in cheek. It doesn't make him any less ugly though

Does he have his toy parrots with him to answer the questions? Otherwise I'm not bothering.

The public health authority never tires of telling people what to do and how to live their lives. The British government never tires of making laws against things and taxing ordinary citizens for their own good. Meanwhile criminals will smuggle in cheap booze and the people who apparently have to be protected from themselves will buy it. The rest of the law abiding populace who don't end the evening in a puddle of their own piss will however have to pay. And the extra money will go to finance Britain's miriad foreign policy failures and military overspending. Wish I still lived in the UK.

In what way?

Nothing to lose versus a point is a good result mentality - criminal stupidity. Houghton is beginning to come across as a bit thick. I imagine he's a lot like Mike Bassett's No 2 in his approach, and agrees with everyone about everything. "Shola Ameobi? Terrible player, terrible positioning, no good for us at all" Interviewer: "Hasn't Mike Ashley just signed him on a new 5 year deal?" "Aye, great player, great positioning. Future of the club to be honest."

Pretty much. I doubt anyone would talk about Spurs otherwise, or any more than other Prem clubs as it were.

Lovely, looking forward to it. Gary Glitter will also perform a summertime children's special at SJP, with Michael Jackson as his special guest.

True, but when Ashley was sounding him out about the job up here there wasnt a lot of us who had a good word to say about him....... If only we could wind the clock back then. I'd have hated Redknapp at the time because I don't think he'd be a long term appointment, he's something of a chequebook manager in my eyes and a bullshitter, and would be on his toes the moment he got a better offer from a Southern team. He's also extravagantly ugly, looking like a wax caricature that's been melting by the fire. Now I'd have him at the club in a flash. At least he has a clue what he's doing.

We haven't had the happiest record with Spanish players, I wonder if a Spanish manager would be any different? It's a bit like the plonk you get on holiday, it tastes pretty good sitting in the sunshine by the Med but take some home and it's bloody terrible.

If he's trying to get a transfer back to Spain, this is a stroke of genius. Joe Kinnear strikes me as an understanding kind of bloke.....

Spurs get to safety because they appointed a proven Prem class manager and gave him some money to spend. Who'd have thought it, eh? They know a thing or two, those Spurs directors!

Incredibly they seem to think Kinnear is a proper manager. Therefore any new appointment would presumably be a stop gap. Seems to me Venables would be better than nothing, I still think it's more about there being 3 worse teams than us; I have no expectation we could put a run together, so we're relying on the likes of Stoke, Boro andWBA being unable to do it either. Not sure what anybody could do coming in with 9 games remaining tbh.

Deary me. How transparent.

The team was pretty awful throughout Allardyce's tenure. Whether that would have been a permanent state of affairs is up for conjecture but there's no doubt in my mind he deserved the sack. That he looks a good option in comparison to the current crew is more a comment on them than a compliment to Allardyce imo.

Well, you reap what you sow. It shouldn't surprise anyone if people stay away next season. No doubt there'll be fans who'll turn up regardless and good on them, but if I was an impoverished season ticket holder I'd be thinking long and hard about just to pick and choose matches. It's been bad enough watching highlights from the armchair tbh, and to be fair not just under Ashley's tenure either.

So... three, then. Barnes has been a failure as a manager, hasn't he? And he's a marginally better manager than a pundit too.

Dear me. I had this nailed on as a Fulham win. Nothing short of 3 points against Hull will do. We're supposed to have quality players; it's time for them to deliver.

Whatever. What a pointless thread.

where was the "Have you seen uglier football" question?

His best solo was on 'Southern Man' but he was never much for lead guitar. It's plainly his solo. If it was anyone else, they'd have turned his amp off after two minutes of butchering the song.